Webblog

Ann Erling

October 28, 2007

Paul F. Sharp’s book “Whoop-Up Country: The Canadian-American West, 1865-1885” discusses the history of the area of Montana east of the Rocky Mountains, and part of Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan). It was in this country that the fur trade held on until past 1865. Sharp includes history and descriptions of the activity along the Whoop-Up Trail, whose main centers of business were Fort Benton and Fort McLeod.

Included in this book is information on the fur traders themselves, their activities, and the challenges they faced supporting the last of the fur trade. One of the most dangerous challenges was the trade with local Native Americans, mostly the Blackfoot and the Sioux. Sharp discusses how for many years traders, Indians, and settlers roamed freely in this western country. The land in this border country supported the trade on the Whoop-Up Trail for many years, especially steamboat trade on the Missouri River, but with the coming of the Northern Pacific Railroad, came the end of the steamboat trade and eventually the end of the Whoop-Up trail. In the end, the Whoop-Up County transformed from the land of migratory traders and settlers, to a land of permanent farmers.

With the use of various historical and personalized narratives, Sharp paints a vivid picture of life on the Whoop-Up Trail, especially among the people who lived and traded in the area. This is the aspect of the book I enjoyed the most; the portraits of the people who lived and worked the trail. Sharp writes life into the trail from Fort Benton to Fort McLeod. While, overall, I enjoyed the way in which Sharp introduces many subjects briefly, I would have liked him to illuminate the topic of the restlessness and wandering quality of people on the Whoop-Up Trail.